Down to Earth But Heavenly Minded

1 The path through the wilderness.
1:3 Living hope.
1:4 Contrast with Jeremiah 2:7.
1:8 Christ apprehended by faith which worketh by love.
1:10-12 Prophetic testimony.
1:11 The inspiring Spirit—See 2 Peter 1:20.
Sufferings of Christ—See chapter 2:19.
1:13-16 Exhortation to steadfastness.
1:17-21 Holiness based on redemption.
1:18 [last part] empty behavior, ancestrally handed down.
1:20 foreordained—foreknown.
1:22 Love based on regeneration.
2—4 The Separated life.
2:2 “unto salvation”—J.N.D. and R.V.
2:4-10 The spiritual house and the new priesthood.
2:4 Living stone—Matthew 16:18.
2:5 Living stones.
2:11-17 Exhortation. Responsibility to walk in holiness through the world.
2:18—3:7 Sanctified relationships.
2:19 Suffering wrongfully—See verse 20.
2:23 Suffering of Christ—See chapter 3:14.
3:1 without the word—i.e., without nagging.
3:12 Note how the quotation stops in the midst of a sentence—the Day of Judgment not yet come.
3:14 Suffering for righteousness’ sake.
3:17-18 Suffering for well-doing—Christ suffered for sins.
4:1 Sufferings of Christ—suffered in the flesh.
4:12 Suffering for Christ’s sake.
4:13 Partakers of Christ’s sufferings.
4:15 Not to suffer as evildoers.
4:16 Suffering as a Christian.
4:19 Suffering according to the will of God.
5 Service and reward.
5:1 Sufferings of Christ—See verse 10.
5:2 Acts 20:28—Shepherding the flock.
5:7 Psalm 55:22.
5:9 Whom—not which!
5:10 Suffer “a while.”

  1 Spiritual growth.
  1:9 hath forgotten—“Forgetful Green.” Bunyan.
  1:13 “Stir up”—connect with 2 Corinthians 5. See chapter 3:1.
  1:19 a more sure word of prophecy—the word of prophecy confirmed.
  1:20 any private interpretation—of its own interpretation.
  2 Apostate teachers.
  2:1 Aspects of perdition.
  2:15 Compare with the Epistle of Jude.
  3 The Lord’s Return.
  3:10 The Day of the Lord.
  3:12 The Day of God.
  3:13 See Isaiah 65 and 66.
  3:15 Is not Paul’s authorship of Hebrews here intimated?
  3:16 hard to be understood—as in Hebrews 6 and 10.

1:1 i.e., The beginning of Christianity. Not “in the beginning” as in Genesis 1:1 and John 1:1.
1:2 “The manifested Life.”
1:7 Note: It is where we walk—not how. All real Christians walk in the Light.
2:3-11 Obedience the evidence of life.
2:4 He who knows God seeks to obey Him.
2:7-8 See John 12:49—The testimony given by the Father to the Son. The same Life in Him and in us.
2:12-28 The family of God.
2:2 9—3:15 The two families.
3:1 The Father’s love for His children.
the sons of God—and such we are. R.V.
3:3 See 1 Thessalonians 3:12, 13.
3:9 commit—practice.
3:16-24 Love, the manifestation of the new nature.
3:17 Active benevolence, a condition of answered prayer. See Proverbs 21:13.
3:20-21 The heart may condemn—then real prayer is impossible. See Psalm 66:18.
4:1-6 The spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
4:7-21 Perfect love—its manifestation and results.
4:12 John 1:18—God manifest in us.
4:15 The indwelling God.
4:17 Perfect love.
Day of Judgment—See John 5:24.
5:1-13 Assurance through divine testimony.
5:1-5 Overcomers.
Summary—Love and Obedience overcoming proofs of divine life.
5:6-13 The witness—water for purification, blood for expiation. Others—like the prophets—came by water— proclaiming the Word for cleansing—but He only came by both water and blood. See Ezekiel 36:25.
5:14-21 Epilogue.
5:14-15 Confidence. The prayer that God answers.
5:16-17 Sin unto death—Jeremiah 11:14; Isaiah 22:14.
5:18-21 Divine certainties.

  1 the elect lady—Lady Electra.
  3 The Son of the Father—the supreme test.
  4-6 Love not inconsistent with loyalty to the truth.
  8 Hebrews 11:2 6—Reward for service—Revelation 22:12.
  10-11 Responsibility to test false teachers and refuse them.

  1 Love ever to be manifested.
  8 Fellowship in the truth.
  9-11 Warning against ecclesiastical pretension.

1 See Luke 6:16 as to the relationship of Jude and James, son of Alpheus.
3 The faith once for all delivered.
4 All creeping things were unclean—See Leviticus 11:41.
unawares—clandestine work.
5-7 Destruction of apostates.
8-10 Despisers of the truth.
11 Threefold apostasy.
12-13 Divine indictment of evil workers.
14-15 Enoch’s prophecy.
16-19 Unholy separatists—Proverbs 18:1.
20-23 Faith’s resources.
20 Studious, prayerful.
21 Trustful, hopeful.
22-23 Compassionate.
24 Compare with Ephesians 3:20.
able—see Hebrews 2:18.

1:8 See Isaiah 48:12.
1:16 See Isaiah 49:2.
2:1 John 20:26—Jesus in the midst—See chapter 5:6.
2:2, 9, 19; 3:1, 8, 15 I know thy works—the Lord’s estimate.
2:4 The greatest heresy of all is the want of love.
2:7, 11 Promise to the overcomer—tree of life—Genesis 3:22.
2:17 Promise—manna—Exodus 16.
White stone—division of the tribes.
2:20 Jezebel—A heathen princess linked to the people of God—the virtual ruler of Israel; Leader in apostasy and seducer of the people. The papal system—1 Kings 16:31.
2:26 Promise—conquest of Canaan.
2:28 Star out of Judah—Balaam’s prophecy.
3:5 [first part] Promise—priestly garments.
[last part] See Moses’ intercession. Contrast Psalm 69:28.
3:7 The key to the treasury—See Isaiah 22:22.
3:9 The conflict with legality. Judaizers in the professed church.
3:12 Promise—the Temple of Solomon.
3:14 Laodicea—A Phrygian city of great wealth—Trading in costly mantles, unguents—Gold pouring in. The Church there largely patterned after the city—self-sufficient, self-reliant, self-righteous.
3:16 Neither enemy nor ardent friend.
3:18 Exhortation—The Lord in the guise of a traveling merchant.
3:20 Behold, I stand—what condescension! what patience!
Behold, I knock—By the Word, By adversity, By bereavement.
4:1 First opening—See chapter 11:19.
4:3 See Exodus 39:10, 13—Sardius—Reuben. Jasper—Benjamin.
4:4 Not king’s crowns—but rewards.
4:6 The eyes of the Lord—See Zechariah 4:10.
4:11 Man is for God; not God for man—See Colossians 1:18.
5:1 The title deeds—See Jeremiah 32:10, 11.
5:6 Jesus in the midst—See Matthew 18:20.
6:2 Bloodless victory—the triumphs of peace.
6:4 Internecine and universal warfare.
6:5 Famine—food doled out by weight.
6:8 Pestilence Added to the Horrors of War and Famine.
6:9 Jewish saints slain in the early part of the tribulation.
6:12 See Isaiah 2:19, 21. Also Isaiah 34:4.
6:13 Collapse of civilization. Downfall of orderly government.
7:2-4 144,000—the remnant of Israel—sealed before the last half of the 70th week begins.
7:9-10 Gentiles who welcome the message of the remnant of Israel in the tribulation days.
8:1 The calm before the coming storm of judgment.
8:3 The angel-priest.
9:2 Strong delusion blotting out the light.
9:7 Nahum 3:17.
9:8 Seductive.
9:10 The prophet that speaketh lies.
10:7 The mystery of God finished when the seventh trumpet sounds.
10:9 Eating the Word of God—Jeremiah 15:16; Ezekiel 2:7; 3:1-3.
10:11 before—in respect of.
11:3 The two witnesses. Connect with Zechariah 4—Royalty and priesthood.
11:5 See Jeremiah 5:14.
11:6 A testimony like to that of Moses and Elijah.
11:8 Jerusalem is called Sodom—See Isaiah 1:10.
11:12 The mid-tribulation rapture of the witnesses who are slain under the beast.
11:15 The seventh trumpet ushers in the Kingdom and goes on to the judgment of the wicked, i.e., to the Great White Throne, thus completing a prophetic series.
11:19 Second opening—See chapter 15:5.
12 A “Sign” in Heaven—God’s thoughts of Israel. Jeremiah 4:31—See Isaiah 66:7. The woman is not in heaven—but on the earth as verse 12 proves. Israel the mother of the Messiah—See Isaiah 9:6; Micah 4:10; 5:2, 3; Romans 9-5.
12:2 See full description of this same scene in Micah 4:8 to 13.
12:14 The eagle—Exodus 19:4.
13:2 The nondescript beast of Daniel 7:7.
13:3 The imperial head wounded to death—but revived by satanic power. The imperial head once wounded to death, shall rise again in the last days—See Habakkuk 3:13.
13:11 The lamb-like beast—the false Messiah. See Daniel 11:36 to 45; 2 Thessalonians 2; 1 John 2.
13:15 life—breath. Contrast Habakkuk 2:19.
14:11 See Isaiah 34:10.
14:13 Blessed—See chapter 16:15. “The returns are not all in yet!” W. P. White.
14:14 The Son of Man—last use of the term—See Matthew 8:20.
14:15 The harvest—discriminative judgment—See Matthew 13:30.
14:18 The vintage—Joel 3:13. The unsparing judgment of apostate Israel.
15:2 The saints slain in the great tribulation.
15:5 Third opening—see chapter 19:11.
16:1 vials—bowls.—Compare the judgments of the bowls with the plagues of Egypt.
16:12 The eastern confederation, “The kings of the sunrising.”
16:15 Blessed—See 19:9.
17:5 Who are the daughters? See Ezekiel 16:44.
18:7 Babylon’s proud boast—See Isaiah 47:7.
18:14 “The fruit season of thy soul’s desire has gone from thee.”
19:9 Blessed—See chapter 20:6.
19:11 Fourth opening.
19:15-16 The winepress—See Isaiah 63:1-10.
20:6 Blessed—See chapter 22:7.
20:11 Job 14:12.
20:25 Contrast Ezekiel 42.
22:1 The river of God—See Genesis 2:10; Psalm 36:8; 46:4; 65:9; Canticles 4:15; Isaiah 58:11; Ezekiel 47:1-12.
22:7 Blessed—see verse 14.
22:10 Contrast with Daniel 12. See Isaiah 29:10-12.
22:12 Reward at the judgment seat of Christ. See 2 John 8; Isaiah 40:10; 62:11.
22:14 do His commandments—“wash their robes,” correct reading.